As WCYB reports, two men who escaped from the Sullivan County Jail in Tennessee died after a motor vehicle chase across North Carolina ended in a crash in Brunswick County earlier this week. Escapees Tobias Carr and Timothy Sarver allegedly were involved in a robbery at a convenience store in Onslow County and then were chased across several North Carolina jurisdictions before their vehicle was disabled and crashed. Precise details of the incident were unavailable at the time of writing. Keep reading for more news.
Criminal Justice Innovation Lab Jobs. Regular readers know that the School of Government Criminal Justice Innovation Lab has been busy collaborating with diverse North Carolina stakeholders to develop and measure consensus policy solutions that promote a fair and effective criminal justice system in our state. With increasing demand for its services, the Lab is hiring a Project Manager and a Research Director to join the team.
The Project Manager will engage directly with stakeholders to implement criminal justice solutions and will contribute to published research examining the effectiveness of those solutions, among other responsibilities. More information about the Project Manager position and details about how to apply are available here.
The Research Director will be responsible for directing the Lab’s portfolio of research projects, including overseeing the maintenance and expansion of the Lab’s North Carolina Criminal Information System, the database that powers the Lab’s Measuring Justice Dashboard. More information about the Research Director position and details about how to apply are available here.
Cold Case Solved. As the New York Times reports, the Watauga County Sheriff’s Office announced this week that it has solved a 1972 triple homicide case, saying that a tip and other evidence led investigators to conclude that Bryce, Virginia, and Bobby Durham were killed in Boone as part of a hit orchestrated by the so-called Dixie Mafia, a loosely organized criminal group operating in the southeastern United States. Sheriff Len Hagaman identified Billy Wayne Davis, Bobby Gene Gaddis, and Charles David Reed as the alleged killers. Davis, who already is serving a life sentence in Georgia for an unrelated murder, is the only suspect who still is living.
Fatal Traffic Stop. WBTV reports that a Lincoln County sheriff’s deputy was dragged from the driver’s side door of a vehicle fleeing a traffic stop prior to shooting the driver, who then crashed into a tree and died at the scene. The driver was identified as Michael Shane Carver of Lincolnton; the condition of the sheriff’s deputy was not immediately available. The SBI is investigating the incident.
Tesla Autopilot Collision. CBS 17 recently acquired dash cam footage of an incident in 2020 where a Nash County deputy’s patrol car was hit by a Tesla on autopilot as the deputy and a Highway Patrol trooper responded to a previous crash. The Tesla driver reportedly admitted that he was watching a movie on his phone when the collision occurred.
Kidnapping. ABC 11 reports that an alleged kidnapping in Vance County culminated in shootings in Georgia that injured the kidnapping victim, a sheriff’s deputy, and the suspect. Robert Brodie Jr. is reported to have broken into a home in Henderson and abducted a woman while armed with a gun. Brodie then drove to Super 8 near Athens, Georgia, where he shot the victim and a sheriff’s deputy before being shot himself. At the time of writing, everyone who was shot had survived and were receiving medical treatment.